Facting Checking Trump's Claim

In the wake of Donald Trump's comments in the most recent debate, the abortion lobby, as well as mainstream media outlets, have been putting forth the unsubstantiated claim that late abortions are done only for serious maternal or fetal indications.

The most recent information we have about why later abortions are done are comments by Ron Fitzsimmons of the National Coalion of Abortion Providers back during the original "partial birth abortion" brouhaha and some contemporary research done by journalists who actually believe in fact checking instead of just passing along abortion-lobby "fact sheets." Those journalists found Fitzimmons's comments to be factual. According to the New York Times:

Mr. Fitzsimmons recalled the night in November 1995, when he appeared on ''Nightline'' on ABC and ''lied through my teeth'' when he said the procedure was used rarely and only on women whose lives were in danger or whose fetuses were damaged.
....
In the vast majority of cases, the procedure is performed on a healthy mother with a healthy fetus that is 20 weeks or more along, Mr. Fitzsimmons said. ''The abortion-rights folks know it, the anti-abortion folks know it, and so, probably, does everyone else,'' he said in the article in the Medical News, an American Medical Association publication.

The reason we don't have more recent data is that the people able to collect it don't publish it. If any journalist wanted to fact check, as they did in 1997, we'd have more recent information. Does't it seem odd to you that, with all of the current debate on 20 week abortion bans, that the abortion lobby and the mainstream media only put out two kinds of information:

1. Anecdotes
2. Survey results lumping in post-viability abortions and post-20 week abortions with those taking place between sixteen and 19 weeks

Shouldn't they, if they wanted to be honest, be sharing recent data that's specific to the topic at hand?

What about what abortion providers themselves say that they do? At Abortion Clinics Onine, over two dozen abortion facilities advertise late abortions, including "outpatient elective abortions through 26 weeks," abortions to 28+ weeks," and "elective abortions to 27 weeks." Why would they adversise something they don't actually do?

Now, let's provide some anecdotes that contradict the abortion-rights narrative:

Emily Klett Here are some examples of ELECTIVE late abortions. The abortion lobby isn't the only people with anecdotes to offer.

Jamie Lee Morales died this year from complications of an elective 23-week abortion.

Sherika Mayo died of complications of a 25-week elective abortion in 2008.

Tamiia Ruseell died in 2004 from an elective abortion performed when she was at least six months pregnant:.

The elective abortion of Baby Boy A was started not in Gosnell's seedy Philadelphia mill but in a higly reputable National Abortion Federation clinic in Delaware.

The claim that late abortions are only done for severe indications is not only unsubstantiated, but is contradicted by a plethora of evidence.